Wriggle: A Fun Puzzle For Any Age

Puzzles are my favorite type of app games, especially the kind that seem simple in the beginning but soon leave you scratching your head. Wriggle definitely falls into this category.

Designed by Conlan Rios, Wriggle is a game featuring a blue worm stuck in a maze with only one way out, and other worms blocking his way. Because of the cute, colorful graphics, I assumed this was a game for kids. While I’m sure they’ll love it too, they might have to wrestle it away from Mom and Dad first.

Wriggle is a fun game for puzzle-lovers of any age. A quick, easy practice round will give you the idea of the game, and helpful tips are provided in between puzzles. Move the worms by dragging their head or tail end into the open spaces. Sometimes the challenge is the blue worm himself, trying to wriggle him in a way that will get him through the exit.

As the puzzles get progressively more difficult, more worms are added, some long and some short, all in some way blocking the blue worm’s exit. To add to the fun, the goal is to get the blue worm out in as few moves (including the other worms) as possible, and each move you make is tracked in the top right.

Even better, the minimum number of moves possible is shown as well, so you can see how close you are. When you complete a puzzle perfectly with the minimum number, you are awarded a badge, which is stuck at the top of your puzzle. Even after you complete a puzzle, you can go back and play it again. (I finished one in two moves, went back later, and couldn’t for the life of me remember how I’d done it.)

The app will open to the last puzzle you tried, but you can navigate back and forth with the arrows or by going to the main menu. The other two buttons at the bottom are handy as well; tap X to clear your moves and move the worms to their starting position, and tapping undo reverses your last move. You can also tweet your scores to compare with other players.

Again, while kids will love the cute graphics and fun sound effects, this is a challenging puzzle game for adults, too. At $0.99, I highly recommend it.

Wriggle requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later and is compatible with iPhone & iPod Touch